Endless Data
by Deric Wadleigh
Summary: Deric, a young boy in a very technically dependent time learns of a plot to de-tech the world.


_**Endless Data**_

The year was 2355 and the world was at a technological peak. An entire virtual world lived within a silicon and metal circuits that powered and controlled the globe. AI had been perfected and nearly every person on the planet had a Personal Equipment Terminal or PET that contained a virtual being named a Net Navi.

The world was in a constant battle with numerous organizations and rogue Navis bent on destroying or controlling the world via the Net. Every being in cyberspace was at risk of virus attack except within one small section known as Net City.

Net City was well protected and a center of commerce for the real world as well as the Net. Thus humans had created numerous programs to defend it to the best of their abilities. The humans had created one program recently that they believed would be able to protect the city by itself for as long as need be.

They were wrong.

Her head hurt incredibly, she was disoriented and had no idea where she was. Opening her eyes, she looked around.

She was in a small alley between buildings; a street bustled by a short ways away.

"What happened?" She said, sitting up.

Her chest exploded with pain and she almost fell back down. Looking down, she saw a black slash from her right hip to her left shoulder.

Cringing, she stood up, her chest continued to burn. Long white hair fell about her face, it reached down to her knees. Looking down at herself, she found herself undamaged except the slash. She was wearing a crimson jumpsuit with white gloves and white boots that reached her thighs.

Stumbling forward, she passed a puddle and looked into it.

Her face was gaunt and her eyes were sunken, she had black eyes with crimson irises.

"Who am I?" She mumbled, rubbing her eyes.

She slipped back down to the ground, her chest burning evermore.

"Who am I!" She yelled, putting her face in her hands.

Deric put a Cannon Battlechip in his PET and clicked send.

"Yea, this is it!" His Navi said.

In cyberspace, his Navi's arm glowed and morphed into a cannon. He fired at the Navi across him. The laser blast fired down the way and the Yellow Navi side stepped and the blast missed.

Deric was a net battler, albeit a poor one, and a student in high school. He was tall and had thick arms and legs. Short brown hair and brown eyes made him look like a generic boy in school. Deric didn't have any special abilities, he wasn't a Net battler champion and he didn't have a secret identity, Deric was a boring, normal high schooler.

"Finish him ZapMan!" His opponent yelled.

His opponents Navi launched a bolt of lightning and caught Deric's Navi.

"Net Navi logging out!" A computer voice said through his PET.

"Gah! I'll beat you eventually Henry!" Deric said, unplugging his PET.

"Fat chance!" Henry said, logging out ZapMan.

"Damn…" Deric said, putting his PET in his belt pouch.

The holograph case in front of him blinked out and the few people that had circled around them dispersed.

Deric turned around and walked away, his mind racing on how to beat his opponents.

"So I'm supposed to have a human operator?" She said, looking over at the Navi next to him.

"Yes, if you don't have one, you need to find out who you were made for." SamuraiMan said, standing up.

SamuraiMan was a Net Navi operated by a boy in Dentech city named Anthony. He wore ancient brown armor and had a long sword on his waist. His hair was tied up in an upstanding tuft that was popular with ancient samurais.

"Hmm…" She said, standing up.

"So what is your name?" SamuraiMan said, holding out his hand.

"I think I'm called Ariana…" She said, shaking his hand.

She had found the name hidden among the fragments of Data within her own memory.

"Interesting, you don't remember anything at all?" SamuraiMan said, scratching his chin.

"Hardly a fragmented bit." Ariana said, closing her eyes.

That wasn't the entire truth; she had found another, well protected, piece of data within herself. It was the location of a small server in the middle of nowhere.

"Well, I'll talk to you later." SamuraiMan said. He was encircled by light and then he disappeared.

"SamuraiMan logging out!" A computer voice said.

Ariana accessed her data and pulled open the server location. Locking on it, she ripped a hole in cyberspace, a strange skill that she possessed. A Navi usually traveled by either logging into where they need to be or traveling the cyber tram ways.

Ariana had found that she could rip a hole in cyberspace and travel straight to the location she wanted by hacking through back servers and offhand wires.

"Here goes…" Ariana said, stepping through the jagged rip in front of her.

The world turned colors rapidly and suddenly she was standing in a dark server space. The rip in space behind her closed and she was left in imposing darkness.

"Un-authorized access, intruder must logout immediately or be forced by security Navis." A computer voice warned.

Lights flicked on and she found herself standing in a large room. Numerous Navis stood around her with their arms outstretched; they all had cannons on their arms.

"Leave or be deleted." One Navi warned.

"Not until I know who I am!" Ariana yelled.

She ran forward and punched one Navi hard in the chest. It flew end over and crashed into a nearby pillar.

"Security Navi logging out." A voice called as the Navi disappeared.

"Delete her!" The Navi yelled and all of them opened fire.

"No!" Ariana yelled, running forward as fast as she could.

She took off at an incredible speed and the volley missed her completely. Her hair fluttered out behind her in a massive sheet as she ran faster, dodging every round that she could.

"Switch to Vulcan!" The Navi yelled. The security Navi's arms changed into multi-barrel guns.

"Sorry boys, I'm not the target." Ariana said, running behind a few of the Security Navis.

The others kept firing and knocked out their own allies.

"Security Navis logging out." The voice called again.

"Fools!" Ariana mocked, running at another.

A powerful barrier appeared before her, stopping her punch.

"Take her!" The Head Security Navi said; he was the one who had created the barrier.

The battle ensued for a few more minutes before only the head security Navi was left fighting Ariana, trying to get her with his cyber sword.

"Stay…oof!" He cursed as Ariana punched him in the stomach.

The security Navi fell to the ground and his sword disappeared in a small burst of code.

"Who are you?" He said as Ariana picked him up by the throat.

"That's what I'm here to find out." Ariana said, throwing him to the ground.

As he fell to the ground, a new program immerged from Ariana's data and activated itself. The program caused the security Navi to phase into data and disappear into her palm. As his data was absorbed into her, she felt her strength return and the best of his programs were incorporated into her own data.

"Interesting." Ariana said, flexing her hand. She flicked through her list of programs and labeled the program as 'Absorb'.

She walked to a nearby tower and punched it. From the data she had claimed of the Security Navi, she had learned that this was the main stream of data through this server.

As the barrier fell, a warning alarm clicked on.

"Removing data, security breached, clearing server." A computer voice said.

"Not until I find out what I need!" Ariana yelled, plunging her hand into the data tower.

She began stealing every piece of data that related to her name. The pieces were few and very far in between. The tower began to dim.

"Data erase complete!" The voice said; the data tower completely disappeared.

"Well it's something." Ariana said, scrolling through the horribly fragmented and half erased data she had found, "Ariana…cr_ated…ulti_ate…defe_e..._tect…pr_gram…_et cit_…corru_t…destr_y…an_i-vir_s…cod_ nmae…snow white."

Ariana puzzled on this for a while before she deduced what it meant. She was an ultimate program created for the defense of Net City against a corrupt anti-virus program code name snow-white. Everything seemed to fit, she was supposed to find and destroy this corrupt 'Snow White' program before it destroyed Net City.

"So where is it?" Ariana wondered, tearing another hole in cyberspace.

She tried to step into it but found herself simply going through and coming back. The server had been cut off from the Net and Ariana was stuck in this server.

"I will get out, I must protect Net City!" Ariana yelled, she tore a few more holes in the cyberspace but none of them led anywhere.

Sitting down, she expanded her consciousness to examine the entire server. Everything seemed close and black.

"Hey dad, how're you doing?" Deric said, walking into his lab.

His dad was a major programmer that watched over and protected Net City.

"Pretty good, you want to get into Net City?" His dad asked, spinning around in his chair.

His dad was very similar to him except the amounting gray hair growing atop his head.

The lab was a small room full of large screens and quite a few computers that were more powerful than anything in the world. A single steel door at the end of the room blocked off one of the highest security rooms in the world. The main server of Net City was held behind that door.

"Sure, jack in!" Deric said, pulling the cord from his PET.

He plugged it into a port on the front of the computer and his Navi disappeared from the PET as it logged in.

"Deric, this isn't Net…gah!" His Navi yelled.

"Net Navi deleted." A voice said and the word deleted scrolled across his screen.

"No…what happened!" Deric said in despair.

"No, jack out quick!" His dad yelled.

Ariana saw her chance; a boy had just jacked into the server she was trapped in. A Navi appeared a few feet in front of her.

"Deric, this isn't Net…" Ariana pounced. She ripped the Navi's head from his body and absorbed his data before he had even finished his sentence.

"Net Navi Deleted." A voice called.

Ariana locked quickly onto the port the boy had jacked into and lunged. She noticed another, strangely familiar, consciousness appeared out of nowhere, vying for the port. She bashed it aside and forced her way through the port just as the boy jacked out.

She was now within the miniscule server within the boy's PET.

"Kind of cramped." Ariana muttered.

"Hopefully she didn't get out!" Deric's dad yelled, tapping quickly on his keyboard.

"What get out?" Deric said, looking at his PET. It no longer read 'Deleted'.

"The virus we had locked down on that server." His dad said, pulling up diagnostics on the server.

"What's so bad about it?" Deric said, looking at the screen.

"Thank god!" His dad said, looking at the server status, the virus was still in captivity.

"So what deleted my Navi?" Deric asked persistently.

"Probably the virus, I'm so sorry. We'll get you another one." His dad said, "Wait a second, it says something did get out…what did?"

"Could that explain why my PET doesn't show 'Deleted' anymore?" Deric asked.

"I wonder what else was on that server." His dad said, taking the PET.

"Hello Dr. Wadleigh…" A woman's voice came from Deric's PET.

Ariana took control of the PET's systems and a screen appeared in front of her. A young boy, maybe sixteen, with brown hair and dark eyes stood in front of her. It was his Navi that she had deleted.

"I wonder what else was on that server." A voice came from off screen.

The voice registered with a person that had been logged in the security Navi's data, it read Dr. Wadleigh, lead programmer of the security systems of Net City.

"Hello Dr. Wadleigh…" Ariana said; as a man of forty years came on screen. His son was a close image of him, except that his father was clearly aged.

"Snow? Is that you?" Dr. Wadleigh said, looking at the woman on the PET.

"Snow? My name is Ariana." Ariana said, crossing her arms.

"No, you're the Anti-virus program I wrote named Snow-White. You were made to end the corrupted defense program of Net City named Ariana, you got the roles reversed." Dr. Wadleigh said.

"So can you fill in my memory about what happened?"

"Certainly, let me log you in here." Dr. Wadleigh said.

He plugged the PET into the computer's main system and she transferred herself into the computer.

She turned to the door of light that had appeared when Dr. Wadleigh had plugged the PET into the computer.

"Snow…" She said, searching her memory.

A burst of images and sounds came back at the sound of the word.

"Ariana, Sci-Lab demands that you return to the main server, you are corrupt and in need of repairs." Snow yelled. A long white blade extended from her right arm.

In front of her stood another female Navi, this one was skinny and had numerous glowing rings around her arms and legs. Floating off the edge of this rings were heavy plates of armor that protected her back, legs and the outsides of her arms. She held a broadsword in her hands. She had long black hair and blue eyes, black shadows had formed around her eyes and lines extend around her face and down her cheeks.

"I am having entirely too much fun to go anywhere little sister." Ariana mocked, swinging her blade forward.

Snow blocked her weapon with ease and struck back, putting deep gouges in the plates above her arms.

"We want to fix you, not delete you." Snow said, pushing Ariana's blade down.

"Not a chance, I'm perfect!" Ariana yelled, lunging forward.

Snow sidestepped, slashed her leg and put Ariana into the ground.

"You will come back or be deleted." Snow said, kicking Ariana over onto her back.

"Not a…chance…" Ariana said, her leg was slowly decoding and disappeared around the slash. Snow's sword had de-stabilized her data.

She lunged upward and gave a wild swing with her sword. The sword cut from shoulder to hip. Snow fell to her knees in unimaginable agony. Bits of data floated free from the slice.

"It seems that you will be the deleted one." Ariana said, regenerating the data in her leg with a regeneration program.

She then kicked Snow off the side of the building, into the alley below, jumping down after her.

"You won't bother me again." Ariana said, crushing Snow's head beneath an armored boot.

An explosion of data float off into the sky and Snow's consciousness receded into the deepest recesses of her core.

She jerked out of the memory and looked at the screen in front of her.

"Snow, are you ok?" Dr. Wadleigh asked.

"Yea, I just remembered something. Dr. Wadleigh if I was deleted, how am I here?" Snow asked.

"Your ultimate program, one of the very few in the world, built another program to protect you, Absorb, and absorbed bugs and random bits of data in order to rebuild your frame." Dr. Wadleigh said, running diagnostics on Snow.

The diagnostics showed on screen.

"This is very odd…" Dr. Wadleigh said, looking over the data.

"What is it?" Snow asked.

"It seems that Absorb has mutated. It can absorb nearly any data now; it shows that you have absorbed two Navis worth of data plus a few terabytes of bugs and fragmented bits." Dr. Wadleigh explained, showing the two core programs that now existed inside of Snow's own core.

"So my Navi is still within her?" Deric said hopefully.

"Theoretically, yes, but it would be difficult retrieve without destroying Snow. Snow is far too valuable to sacrifice for your Navi." Dr. Wadleigh said, examining Snow's data further, "Your core is such a mess of programs and bugs."

"I admit; I haven't been feeling at my top lately." Snow said, stretching her shoulders.

"Power yourself down for twelve hours and let me re-organize and reprogram your core. You could really use a tune up." Dr. Wadleigh said, scrolling through the list of bugs and un-wanted programs that resided within her core.

"Of course Dr. Wadleigh." Snow said; she laid down on her back and closed her eyes.

"Good god, she really has done a number to herself." Dr. Wadleigh said, opening up Snow's core data.

"How long do you think this will take?" Deric said, looking at his dad.

Dr. Wadleigh was tapping madly on the keyboard, deleting everything that wasn't her ultimate program.

An hour later he was done and a short list of Snow's programs remained.

"So she's all better then?" Deric said; he was lying on his back in a corner of his father's lab. He was dying of boredom.

"Yup, but I didn't manage to repair her memory so all she'll remember is what was in her head when she shut down." Dr. Wadleigh said, "I've added a few programs to help her and I've modified a few of her current programs to help her. I couldn't remove the cores of the other Navis, they're too far imbedded into her data."

He typed a startup command and hit enter.

"Ah…what I nice nap!" Snow said, sitting up. She stretched luxuriously and got to her feet.

"How do you feel Snow?" Dr. Wadleigh asked, closing all the diagnostics and files on Snow.

"Perfect, I couldn't be….Dr. Wadleigh, why do I still have the slash on my chest?" Snow asked, looking down.

"I attempted to repair it but every time I did your data started to de-stabilize. I think it did more than frame damage, anyway I took away all pain sensors to the affected area so you can't feel it anymore." Dr. Wadleigh said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"It's alright, do you have a mission for me, or am I still pursuing Ariana?" Snow asked, standing at attention.

"I do have another mission for you and you are to keep an eye out for Ariana at the same time." Dr. Wadleigh said, clicking a few more keys.

"What is it sir?" Snow asked.

"You are to be Deric's Net Navi." Dr. Wadleigh said, pointing at Deric.

"This should be interesting…" Snow said, crossing her arms.

"One of the extra programs that I installed is a Battle Chip program so that Deric can feed you Battle Chips." Dr. Wadleigh said.

"Cool!" Deric said, looking at his PET.

"Sorry Deric, I can't let you have this PET; I need to make a custom PET for Snow. She needs one that can encompass her entire programs and abilities." Dr. Wadleigh said, unplugging his PET, "Come back tomorrow and I'll have it ready."

"This is amazing." Snow said, examining her core data. It was perfectly clean and had a few powerful programs in it.

She scrolled through them, a few of them were un-named and a few others were familiar, snow sword, Absorb, White aura and her own basic ice cannon.

"Snow, I'm going to work on creating you a PET. While I do that, I'm going to put you through a Virus Gauntlet." Dr. Wadleigh said; the screen showed him typing on the keyboard.

"Okay, let's go." Snow said, readying herself.

"Activating, your goal is to ring the bell at the end." Dr. Wadleigh said, activating the program.

Walls materialized and rose around her. They were obsidian black and glass smooth, leaving one opening in front of her.

"Go!" Dr. Wadleigh said, a buzzer sounded.

Snow activated a few programs and her arm glowed. It morphed into a three foot, glowing white blade. Fog rolled off the blade and the air around it felt icy cold. A white glow emanated off her and she started forward.

She ran forward and dodged around the corner, the Gauntlet was a complete labyrinth. Around the corner, a trio of Mettaur viruses sat there.

She slashed out with the blade and the Mettaurs were cut down and deleted. Snow kept running, determined to impress.

Around the next bend sat a few cannon viruses. The moment she appeared, they opened fire.

"Gah!" Snow groaned as the rounds collided with her aura. She waited for the impact but the rounds didn't get past her aura, "Ha!"

Her sword arm morphed into a blaster and she fired. A snowball launched from her cannon, it seemed harmless at first but when it collided with the cannon, the cannon became incased with ice and was frozen solid.

She fired three more times and froze the other cannons. Swapping back to her sword, she ran forward and slashed through the frozen cannons.

"Too easy…" Snow muttered, continuing on.

As she continued the viruses got steadily harder. She fought spikies, swordies, momogras and was nearing a large, dark room.

"Where are you…?" Snow mumbled, holding her sword in a defensive way.

Out of the darkness a large beam of energy fired and nearly hit her. Snow rolled and ran out of the way. Three more blasts of different colors came from the darkness.

"This is programmed darkness or that beam would be lighting them up." Snow deduced running towards the beam's originating point.

She noticed movement in front of her and two glowing eyes appeared. She slashed and the shadow virus was deleted. The darkness cleared and Snow gasped.

She was starring face to face with a Scuttlest virus. A powerful virus to begin with, this Scuttlest was six feet tall, had eight legs and a powerful life aura. It had been seriously upgraded.

Snow slashed forward and attempted to cut it down, her sword was stopped upon the aura. The Scuttlest opened its mouth and a powerful laser blasted out of it. Snow took the blow hard in the chest and was thrown back twenty feet. Her aura flickered away, overdrawn from the massive blast.

Landing in a heap a short ways away, Snow cursed and got back to her feet. The Scuttlest seemed to give a short, metallic laugh.

"Cheeky little bastard aren't you." Snow said, circling carefully around, the Scuttlest mimicked her.

It opened its mouth and a powerful beam shot at Snow. She jumped straight up ten feet and the beam missed her, but she noticed a weakness.

The aura dropped to let the beam fire.

"That's it!" Snow said, landing on one knee, she launched forward.

The Scuttlest fired again and Snow sidestepped the beam and kept running.

She was now fighting face to face with the Scuttlest.

"Come on, fire you son of a…" She was cut off as the Scuttlest opened its mouth.

In the blink of an eye, Snow slipped to the side and lunged forward. Her sword slipped in as the beam stopped. The Scuttlest stopped moving, her sword was poking out the top of its head.

"Scuttlest logging out!" A computer voice said.

"Wait, that wasn't a virus?" Snow said, pulling up the screen to see Dr. Wadleigh.

"No, it was, Scuttlest are just far too rare to let you delete it. It just went back to its cage." Dr. Wadleigh said; he had Deric's PET torn open and spread across the desk. He also had a few small boxes of chips and circuits.

"See you at the end." Snow said, continuing onward.

"Let's hope you make it…" Dr. Wadleigh muttered under his breath, closing the window.

Snow ran down the labyrinth ways, which were strangely virus free.

"There!" Snow exclaimed, she stood in a larger room that had a silver bell hanging from the ceiling, thirty feet up.

She jumped, hit the wall and jumped for the bell.

"Not so fast little missy." A voice called from below.

A powerful ball of fire smashed into her and she fell to the ground, over twenty feet beneath her. Hitting the ground hard, she groaned and got to her feet.

"We're here to stop you." A Navi in red robes said.

"If you singed my hair, I am going to be very unhappy." Snow said, pushing her hair back behind her shoulders, "Who are you?"

"Fire Mage Red!" The red robe said.

"Lightning Mage Yellow!" The yellow robe said.

"Ice Mage Blue!" The blue robe said.

"This should be fun." Snow said; her right arm lengthened into a sword.

"We can't lose!" Yellow said, he raised his hands and a lightning bolt shot across the gap between them.

"Nice try!" Snow said, ducking.

The bolt crashed harmlessly into the wall behind her.

"Break!" The three mages said in unison and they jumped apart.

"Fat chance!" Ariana laughed, Yellow jumped straight at her and the other two flew off.

"Delete!" Yellow yelled. His arm was a crackling blade of electricity.

There blades crashed between them, ice and electricity.

"You won't beat me!" Snow yelled, shoving him back.

She jumped back just as a burst of fire exploded in their midst.

Snow lunged forward before Yellow could react and she slashed through his midsection.

"Yellow Mage logging out!" A computer voice said and Yellow disappeared in a blink of light.

"Freeze!" Blue said and ice grew around Snow's legs and crept up her body until she was encased to her shoulders.

"Got you now!" Red said, stepping in front of her.

"Got me? What delusions do you live within?" Snow mocked.

"I have you completely encased in ice." Blue said, stepping up to Red's side.

"Ice? My name is Snow, I live in the cold!" Snow yelled, the ice exploded outwards at Snow's command and she leapt forward.

Red launched out of the way but Blue was cut down by Snow's blade.

"Damn…" Blue muttered as he disappeared.

"Blue Mage logging out." The voice resounded.

"Just us now!" Red said, both of his arms formed into flaming swords.

"As you wish…" Snow muttered as her left arm morphed into a white blade.

They jumped at each other, blades crashing together in burst of hot steam. The ice and fire colliding made enough steam that the room was soon like a sauna, fog rolled off them and everything was tinted white.

"You can't win, fire melts Snow!" Red yelled, lashing out with his blades.

Snow counterattacked and more steam enveloped them. Red leapt back.

"Fire tower!" He yelled and a tower of molten fire burned away the steam.

"Too easy!" Snow yelled, both of her swords swapped to blasters and she launched a barrage of frozen volleys at the fire tower. An explosion of wind and steam and the tower vaporized.

The room was completely blanketed in a white steam, blocking both of their visions. Snow stepped back and looked around.

"I can hear you!" Red said, a fireball burst from the fog and hit Snow.

She went down, groaning from the burns, they had already worn her aura away and she was defenseless now.

"Hear me…" Snow said, puzzling.

She switched back to dual ice blades and closed her eyes. A light noise, maybe a toe scuffing the ground, came from her right.

She lashed out, running forward and slashing madly. She collided with a target; Red grunted and fell to the ground, missing an arm. Snow stood over him, panting hard.

"You're good, too good for me." Red said as he disappeared.

"Red Mage logging out." The voice called.

"That was fun." Snow said; she shot the bell with her blaster.

A clear, cold note rang out through the haze.

"Congratulations, I'm not surprised you won, through I am surprised that you did it with such a simple set of programs." Dr. Wadleigh said.

The Labyrinth disappeared and Snow was left standing in an open space, looking at a large screen projection of Dr. Wadleigh's lab.

"Doctor? Where are you?" Snow said, scanning the projection.

"Sorry Snow, I was uploading the PET's custom programming from my personal computer over there." Dr. Wadleigh said. He rolled into screen on an office chair.

Snow broke down laughing at the sight of Dr. Wadleigh rolling about on a wheeled chair.

"Hey dad, how's the programming going?" Deric said, he had returned the next day; his dad had stayed the night at the lab.

"Done, I've finished it all." His dad said, turning to him.

"Cool, does that mean I can get back to Net Battling now?" Deric said with a grin.

"Of course, just don't go too crazy because if a net emergency comes up Snow must be ready to fight." His dad warned.

"Oh come on, I can beat them all." Snow said; her voice came from the lab screen.

"You ready?" Dr. Wadleigh said, picking up an odd PET that was sitting on the desk.

"Pull it." Snow said with a nod.

He pulled the plug from the PET and the cord zipped back up on the spring loaded roll in the PET.

"That's a strange PET." Deric said, looking at it.

It was white and had the basic screen of a PET but it also had a few extra bulges and wires circling around. There were two chip ports on the right side instead of one.

"The extra wires and chips are to power up the PET for her full functions. She has a prototype program that allows a Navi to use two chips at once, that's what the dual ports are for. The PET also has a triple strength battery so that it can keep the usual two week battery strength and her exceptionally large CPU consumption." Dr. Wadleigh explained.

"It's like a luxury mansion for me in here." Snow laughed; she then moved around the programs on the screen to her liking and sat down in a chair that was beneath the screen on the right side.

"Come on, let's have some fun!" Deric said, heading for the door.

"Deric, here, I missed your birthday present last week and I think this might make up for it. Buy some new Battlechips with it." Dr. Wadleigh said, handing him thirty dollars.

"Wow, thanks!" Deric said, running out the door.

Deric stepped into the chip store.

"Deric, I haven't seen you in a while, are you going to end you're losing streak with some new Battlechips?" The man in front of him asked. The strangest thing about this man was his hair; it was cherry red and pushed back in a spiked bunch. His clothing clashed horribly with his hair, the suit was bright orange and almost hurt to stare at.

It was all more marketing and business tricks to Xed.

"I don't know Xed; I don't really think that I need any Battlechips to do that. But it couldn't hurt." Deric said, stepping up to a monitor.

"What makes you so confident?" Xed asked, looking at him skeptically.

Xed had bought a storefront and put up a chip shop around three years ago. Within the store he had also built a holosphere, about three feet across, for Net Battles to be held within his store.

"I got a new Navi." Deric said, scrolling through the list of chips.

Most chips around a dollar but sometimes you would scroll across a rare one that was ten or twenty dollars.

"So who did you get to make it, because I'm sure you didn't go with another generic one? So who made it, Shock, Gigabyte? Maybe you've been saving for a Higsby?" Xed asked persistently.

"No, actually my father made her." Deric said, clicking a 'Recovery 100' to add to his count for another dollar fifty.

"I forgot your dad is a major programmer, cool. You're really going at the chips there; you know you're already passed ten dollars?" Xed said, he loved his store but he always made sure that the kids didn't waste every cent they had on chips.

"Dad gave me thirty dollars to find new chips to go along with my navi." Deric said, handing him the thirty.

He added three 'Ice tower' Battlechips and kept scrolling.

"If you're an ice themed Net Battler, you may want a few snow bombs." Xed said, pointing at a chip.

Deric grabbed five of them for a quarter each and continued.

"I think I'll just take this and that should nearly top it off." Deric said, grabbing a rare ice mind chip, it was ten dollars.

"Ice mind, bit of a dangerous chip if you aren't safe from ice, it allows your Navi to control ice however they want for a period of time. If your Navi isn't immune to ice it could destroy itself." Xed warned.

"Don't worry, Snow is fine. Here, keep the rest." Deric said, clicking complete transaction, 29.45

"Thank you, I'll get them, Ice mind is on the shelf down there if you wouldn't mind." Xed said, clicking finish.

Deric grabbed them and it and handed it to Xed. He looked through the drawers beneath the counter and pulled up the other eight chips Deric ordered. Deric took them and put them in his chip case on his waist, making fourteen.

"Thanks Xed, talk to you later." Deric said, running out the door.

It was getting late and the weekend was over tomorrow.

"Welcome back everyone, I trust you all had a good weekend?" Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Smith was a freshman teacher at Deric's high school.

"So this is class?" Snow's voice carried through a small, wireless ear bud that his father had given him with his PET.

"Yea, it gets rather boring so if you want, you can wander off wherever you want." Deric muttered. He quietly slipped the PET's plug into the desk and set his PET in the desk drawer.

"I'll be back later." Snow said; a sound tingled in his ear, signifying that she had jacked in.

"Wish I could follow." Deric mumbled, looking at the computer screen on his desk.

"Deric, if you plan to talk to somebody on your computer all day, please shut up!" Mr. Smith snapped.

Snow zipped through high speed wires, heading for Net City. A snap of darkness and a flash of colors and Snow was standing in the main square of Net City.

"…Have you seen the new battle coliseum, it's huge." Snow heard a Navi say as he walked by.

"Battle coliseum?" Snow said, turning to look at the Navi.

"You should enter; it would be good experience Ariana." A familiar voice called behind her.

She turned and saw SamuraiMan walking up behind him.

"Hey SamuraiMan, I've discovered who I am, my actual name is Snow." Snow said, holding out her hand.

"That's good, what happened?" SamuraiMan said, shaking her hand.

"I got into a kid's PET and you won't guess who his father was." Snow said.

"Who?" He said, walking towards a nearby park.

"Dr. Wadleigh, security programmer of Net City." Snow laughed, "The man who programmed me!"

"Seemingly ironic, so he gave you your memory back." SamuraiMan said, sitting down on a bench.

"No, but I managed to piece together what I needed from what they could tell me. He did reprogram my core in order to stabilize my data from when I fought with the original Ariana." Snow said.

"So what are you doing now?" SamuraiMan said.

"I'm now that kid's Navi." Snow said.

"That's it, nothing else?" SamuraiMan said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm still an Official Navi, the only mission I have right now is to keep an eye out for Ariana." Snow said, pushing some hair behind her ear.

"Well, if she get's wind that you weren't deleted she might come after you?" SamuraiMan said, looking over at her.

"The Battle Coliseum, that'll spread my name." Snow said, standing up with a clap.

She wandered around the city for a while longer before going to the coliseum.

"The weekend tournament of the Battle Coliseum is three dollar entry for all Navis." A computer's voice said as Snow walked into the Coliseum lobby.

"If you're looking to sign up, use one of the consoles over there." A Navi directed her.

"Thank you." Snow said, nodding.

She clicked 'sign up' on the console. A quick scan and the computer brought up her file. Most of the data on it was blacked out except her picture, name and a symbol showing her status as an Official.

"Welcome Snow, shall we deduct from your personal account?" A computer voice asked her from the console.

"Yes please." Snow said.

"Thank you, three dollar deduction leaves nine thousand and twelve dollars." The voice informed her.

Net Navis, being conscious and self sustaining, were allowed bank accounts and virtual jobs. Most jobs were virus busting and things like that; Snow worked as an official and made an average of two thousand dollars a month. Her 'age' was technically only five months old.

Snow looked up on the player's board. Three sections showed the fighters. Each section was a different class; Snow was put in class three. This was to ensure no little kids were completely destroyed by more powerful Net Navis.

"Snow, class is over; let's go beat the pants off Henry." Deric's voice floated through her ears.

"Roger, jacking out." Snow said, disappearing.

She jacked out, heading directly back to the PET.

"Come on, we're going to Net Battle in the holosphere down at Xed's." Deric said to Snow.

"Ok, we'll destroy him." Snow said with a nod.

"It's just down the street; Xed is a genius when it comes to marketing." Deric commented.

Xed had built his shop just a block down from the high school, right in front of a popular bus stop. He had paid out more money for the storefront but he had made an exemplary amount of profit from it.

"Deric, it's good to see you again, here for more chips?" Xed said as he walked into the store.

"No, we have a gang here for Net Battles." Deric said, "Also, can you transfer my Battle Pass onto Snow."

"Sure, let me see your PET." Xed said, holding out his hand.

The Battle Pass was a five dollar pass that Xed sold to anyone that wanted to Net Battle in his store. If you bought it, it was attached to your Navi and you could battle as much as you wanted in his holosphere.

"Here." Deric said, pulling his white PET from his belt pack.

"Good god, what is this?" Xed said, staring at the PET in his hand.

"My custom PET." Deric said, leaning over the counter.

"Your dad must be either mad or years ahead of all of society." Xed said, plugging the PET into his computer, "Your Navi is amazing too!"

"Completely custom." Deric said.

"She is beyond custom; I'll be surprised if even my Navi could beat her." Xed said; he uploaded a 'Battle Pass' into Snow.

"Well, at least my losing streak is over." Deric said, taking back his PET.

"Over? Your winning streak begins here!" Xed said in amazement.

"So do I have your permission to be confident now?" Deric laughed.

Xed just laughed as a group of kids came through the door.

"So Deric, I hear you have a new Navi for me to stomp." Henry's voice called from behind him.

"That's a good one, come on Snow, let's show him." Deric said.

"Snow…man; you get girlier every time I talk to you." Henry laughed, walking over to his usual side of the sphere.

"Jack in, Snow!" Deric said, jacking in.

"That's one strange PET." One of Henry's friends said.

Xed walked over and leaned against the wall to watch.

"Zapman, jack in!" Henry said, jacking in.

The arena materialized around Snow. It was a fair sized arena and had a black paneled ground. A Navi appeared in front of her. It was yellow and had two large antennas on both shoulders. He had ridges around his wrists and small metal points on his fingers. He was a digital lightning rod.

An Xed's Navi, a hologram of himself in his orange suit appeared. He stood in the center and held up his hand.

"Battle start!" Xed's hologram said, jumping out of the way. A buzzer sounded.

"You look like a mop; this'll be over in a second." Zapman mocked her.

"Don't insult my looks, compared to you I'm a beauty queen." Snow said with a scowl on her face.

"That's your new Navi? Ha, this'll be easier than before." Henry said as the dome over head lit up with a projection of the outside world. Henry and Deric were staring at each other across the globe. Snow mimicked Deric and stared at Zapman

"Let's go, Snow, go ahead." Deric said.

"Zap towers in, download!" Henry said as he put two battle chips in his PET.

Two large steel towers materialized behind Zapman. Electricity coursed up them and arced to the spikes on Zapman's shoulders.

"Bolt reversal!" Zapman yelled and he fired a bolt of lightning at Snow.

Snow made no attempt to dodge the lightning. It struck her directly and she didn't move.

"Ouch…" Snow said half heartedly. She brushed of the electricity and started to walk forward.

"No…no effect!" Zapman yelled in astonishment.

Snow's right arm morphed into a cold sword.

"What is she, how could that not affect her?" Henry roared.

"Area steal battlechip in!" Deric said, putting in a chip.

"You're done." Snow said and she disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Where'd she go?" Zap man said, "Charge!"

Electricity surged into him but suddenly the towers were sliced into pieces. The electricity was cut. A ghost of Snow flitted around the towers.

"You're nothing to me." Snow's voice came from nowhere.

Suddenly both of Zapman's spikes were sliced off and Snow was standing in front of him with her blade pressed to his throat.

"I win." She said simply.

"Holy crap." Xed said stepping forward.

"Zapman logging out!" A computer voice called.

"That was too easy." Snow laughed.

"That was amazing!" Xed said, staring down at the holosphere.

Snow was standing in the arena waiting for another opponent. Deric put the Area Steal chip in the holosphere computer to reacharge it.

"I'm going to take him on next." A boy said.

"No me, I beat you already." Another student said.

"No…I am going to take him on. Xedric, turn off the lights in the store and prepare for battle." Xed said, stepping up to the holosphere.

He pulled out a bright yellow PET and jacked in. His navi, Xedric, was already in the system, but he needed the PET to battle.

"Yes sir." Xedric said and the lights around the store dimmed.

"You're in for it now Deric." Henry laughed, stepping off to the side as Xed pulled out a box of chips from his waist. The box was sure to have some of the rarest and most powerful chips ever created.

Snow stared across the battlefield at Xedric. He had the same hair as Xed and the same orange suit. His face differed slightly, but no more than a son from his father.

"Ready!" Xedric said, holding up his fists.

Snow could feel the power coming from Xedric; it would be a grueling match for sure.

"Snow, are you ok after the last match?" Deric asked.

"Zapman? He wasn't even a warm up." Snow laughed it off.

"Match start in three…two…one…start!" An automated computer voice said and a buzzer sounded.

"Angel wings, battlechip in, download!" Xed said, putting a gold embossed chip into his PET.

Xedric started to glow and two large wings digitized behind him. Xedric flexed his wings and disappeared in a blink.

"Where'd he go?" Deric said, looking around.

"I'm following him, over there!" Snow said, pointing at a top corner of the fight area.

Xedric was floating high in the air.

"Snow, dual ice blades, hold your position." Deric said, scanning the field with his PET.

"Ultra Lance, battlechip in, download!" Xed said, sliding a shiny white chip into his PET.

Ten shiny lances appeared around Xedric and he swung his arm. The lances slashed forward, leaving trails of light behind.

Snow was prepared and she leapt away. Three spears struck where she had been and the rest chased after her.

"Snow, can you dodge them?" Deric asked.

"I think so." Snow said, hanging onto a ledge on the wall. She paused for a precious second and then launched directly down.

Four lances crashed into the wall and disappeared in small bursts of data. The last three curved down after her.

Snow performed a front flip on the ground and the last three spears hit the ground.

"Hero Sword!" Xed said, pushing in a new chip.

Snow stopped to find Xedric right in front of her, floating a few inches off the ground. A sword materialized on his arm and he slashed forward.

Snow was suddenly back on top of the roof top with Ariana slashing towards her. Snow instinctively brought out both her ice blades and pushed her sword away.

"Ariana, I will delete you!" Snow yelled, pushing her away.

Snow ran towards her and slashed wildly with her blades.

"What're you on about?" Ariana said; her voice didn't seem right.

"You are corrupt and evil Ariana, I'm going to kill you." Snow said, lunging forward.

"Snow!" Someone's voice floated through her ears.

"Shut up, I will kill you." Snow said, stabbed madly. Slashes appeared all over Ariana.

"Hey, Snow, come on. Don't do this." Ariana said; her voice was still strange, "I surrender, come on!"

Snow was in a mindless rage at this point and kept slashing. Ariana fell to the ground, covered in slashes; her metal plates were missing suddenly.

Snow drove both of her blades down through Ariana's chest.

"Snow!" Deric's yell finally got through her.

Snow snapped back to reality and looked down.

Xedric was lying beneath her; he was slashed up and cringing in pain as Snow's blades pierced his chest.

"Snow, stop it!" Deric said, trying to jack her out.

"Deric, what's wrong with your navi!" Xed said, hurriedly jacking Xedric out.

"Net navi logging out!" A voice said.

"Snow, log out!" Deric demanded.

"Net navi logging out." The voice said again.

"What happened?" Snow asked as she appeared in the PET.

"When Xedric slashed at you, you pushed him off with both of your blades and began slashing at him faster than anything I'd ever seen. You went crazy, screaming about someone named Ariana, before slashing Xedric into next week. You finally came out of it when you drove your blades through his chest." Deric said.

"This is going to take weeks to fix." Xed said, staring down at his PET.

"I'm sorry Xed." Deric said.

"It's ok; just have your dad check Snow out. I think something is wrong with her." Xed said, taking his PET back to his terminal behind the counter.

"Maybe that is for the best." Snow said.


End file.
